Blue Boy

O body come inside my God.

Spin his name, there is

a gentle joy to be had

on the ground. We want

the wind to shake through

the holy blue morning,

want to walk our flesh

down the street, impatient

and in love first and last.

Here is the boy not broken

but asleep. Here is his

skin which has never

said anything but yes.

~

A boy washes windows. In black leather pants, he sings

“Money can’t buy me love, can’t buy me love . . .”

~

What makes them different?

He stays in bed these

days not out of sadness

but its opposite, which is

the same as the opposite

of gravity. It was no

accident that she was

there first. It meant she

knew his heart through

seasons and loved

it still. And he loved hers

still, after seasons,

names of things, etc.

~

Christmas Eve, he stops at the grocery store where a crowd

gathers listening to the radio. The country is at two wars.

~

It’s a classic story shape.

The hero leaves home

to weather a storm

and at the end, he either

returns home and is accepted

or he makes a new home.

When he goes home to her,

he calls it that. He takes

her in the kitchen despite

the company. The stove

boils. Daffodils open.

He was gone a long time.

Which ending is this?

~

She starts to cry and says, “Don’t turn into a man. If you

must turn into something, turn into a wolf.”

~

War, of course, assumes

two sides and this is why

some cannot believe

in it. O right eye look kindly

on the left. Stay, stay soft.

Now the boy washing

windows goes home

to his darling. And then

he leaves, which is also

a kind of going home.

The corners of his sheets

are neatly tucked.

He sleeps for a long time.